Recycling, bin emtying etc...

[Loosehead]

In Bournemouth we have the big bin small bin system. for flats it's just 2 big bins one for recycling etc and one for the rest.. For some reason they cannot take plastic bags in the recycling bin, in my block there live illiterate idiots who seem incapable if working out what goes in what bin so quite often our recycling bin is labelled as "contaminated" and has to go to landfill. So the question then, what I do not understand is, given that even if everyone is good and puts all their recycling stuff in the correct bin, it is still necessary to sort the contents into the different materials so if it is necessary anyway why can we not just have the one bin anyway? Does anyone know what happens to the recycling stuff, how is it sorted etc?

[Buenchico]

The labour costs (and the health risks to the sorters) would be unacceptable if it was necessary to sort through the contents of bins which contained food waste, soiled nappies, used cat litter, etc.

Many local authorities ban plastic bags from the recycling bins because:
(a) many of them are now bio-degradable and start to decompose before they can be recycled ; and
(b) plastic bags often hide the true contents of the bin (such as the type of items I've referred to above).

See here for information about how our local recycling plant operates:
http://www.suffolkrecycling.org.uk/Content.asp ?PID=7&SID=3

Chris